11 injured in north Afghan blast

Up to 11 civilians were wounded Tuesday in a bomb explosion in northern Afghan province of Faryab, authorities said. "An Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attached to a motorcycle was detonated in Ganja Bazaar area of Qaisar district at around 10 a.m. local time, injuring 11 civilian men," the provincial governor Mohammadullah Baktash told Xinhua. The obvious target of the attack was not clear at this span of time. The injured were shifted to hospitals in provincial capital Maimana, lying 425 km northwest of national capital Kabul, he said, adding the injuries were not life-threatening. It is the third explosion to take place in northern part of war- hit Afghanistan since early Tuesday morning. Earlier Tuesday, two policemen were killed and six people including a teenage girl wounded when two separate blasts hit Kunduz province, some 250 km north of Kabul. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Taliban was suspected of carrying out such attack. The Taliban insurgents, who ruled the country before they were ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001, renewed armed insurgency, staging ambush and suicide attacks, killing combatants as well as civilians. The Taliban has intensified attacks since late last month when they launched an annual rebel offensive against Afghan and about 100,000 NATO-led forces stationed in the country.